Posted on 06/13/2012 12:15:39 PM PDT by NoLibZone
Americans' aversion to voting for Mormons has spiked since Mitt Romney's first presidential bid in 2007 — and that the people most wary of Mormon candidates are not Evangelicals, but rather political liberals and non-religious voters, according to new research from a leading scholar of anti-Mormon attitudes.
The overall increase in anti-Mormon attitudes among liberals may be an unanticipated consequence of the "the continuing candidacy of Mitt Romney and Mormon activism against same-sex marriage," the study suggests. And its findings may be alarming to the Romney campaign because among the study's other findings is that voters' perceptions of Mormonism are closely tied to whether they'll vote for him.
According to American National Election Studies, nearly 35 percent of national respondents said in February they were "less likely" to vote for a Mormon. That's up nine points from 2007, when Pew found 26 percent of voters expressing concern about pulling the lever for a Latter-day Saint.
The uptick in anti-Mormon voter attitudes may come as a surprise to those who predicted Romney's candidacy would have a mainstreaming effect on his faith. But as University of Sydney scholar David Smith, the paper's author, writes, just as President Obama's successful candidacy didn't put an end to tense race relations in America, Romney's political assent hasn't cured the country of anti-Mormonism. In fact, as the data shows, Romney's rise may have lead to increased anxiety about his religion among his natural political opponents.
According to the paper, concern about Mormonism has remained relatively stable among Evangelicals, with 36 percent expressing aversion to an LDS candidate in 2007 and 33 percent doing so in 2012. But among non-religious voters, that number shot up 20 points in the past five years, from 21 percent in 2007 to 41 percent in February. There were also substantial increases in Mormon-averse voters among liberals — 28 percent in 2007 and 43 percent in 2012 — as well as moderates, who went from 22 percent in 2007 to 32 percent this year.
"Aversion to Mormons is still an important foce in American public opinion, and one that seriously affects Romney's chances even if he ultimately overcomes it," Smith writes in his paper, available online here.
Smith is the author of a detailed analysis on anti-Mormonism in the 2008 election, which suggested that the belief that Mormons aren't Christian was tightly linked to opposition to Romney among Christian conservatives.
The new study argues that the single most accurate predictor of how a voter views Romney is how he views Mormons — whether or not they are Christian, patriotic, hard-working, and friendly. Strikingly, the correlation between attitudes about Mormonism and support for Romney is even stronger than political ideology or party identification.
Perhaps most potentially distressing to Romney's campaign is the study's finding that conservatives who said they were less likely to vote for a Mormon were much more likely to say they were undecided or would not vote at all in a contest between Obama and Romney. Pundits have been predicting for months that anti-Mormon Republicans would stay home in November; this study reaffirms that idea.
The paper comes with an important caveat: the survey data was collected in late February and early March — in the heat of the Republican primaries. At that point, Romney was the clear frontrunner, but far from the presumed nominee. Since his opponents dropped out, Romney has earned plaudits from Republican operatives and activists for uniting the right behind him with his combative campaign style.
The two questions that remain are whether Romney can overcome Christian conservatives' deep-seated theological differences by taking the fight to Obama; and whether he can have to win over swing voters and moderates, whose perceptions of Mormonism have worsened over the past five years.
Liberals hate mormons because they are the only US head quartered religion.
Mormons are bad.
Muslims are just fine./s
Why does anyone “hate” Mormons this much anyway?
When they start flying planes into buildings then you can have a real reason to hate them.
They hate mormons now because the opponent to the guy in whom they have the hope of the rapid advancement of communism is a mormon.
To date it had always been Christians and conservatives fighting Mormonism.
It would be unusual for atheists and liberals to join in that battle, it probably won’t amount to much.
Harry Reid and Glenn Beck are both Mormons so why is Mormonism a factor in a political contest?
Libs lurking and reading posts on FR?
Well, considering how many Freeps who HATE Romney and Mormons (and continually posts every negative article, report, etc. about Mormons and Mittens) and have equated voting for Mitt as being "ANTI-PATRIOTIC" and "ANTI-CHRISTIAN" and who claim Mitt is 10 times worse not too mention more of a "threat" than our Fascist Dear Leader....
....who knows, mayhaps they have been influenced by the handful of naive, clueless, uninformed and/or delusional ones here, who would as soon help reelect Barack Hussein Obama, thus encourage all to stay home come November?
Yep, nodoubtaboutit, Mormons are much more dangerous than Islamic Jihadists and Muslim Brotherhood and Mittens would take up where Dear Leader left off in appeasing/defending/supporting Islamists and working to diligently harm if not destroy our Republic...
...and if you doubt me, just ask those who shall remain anonymous to protect the guilty if they do not agree???
Cuz they're always massacring people. Read it in the Post.
I was given some good advice over the weekend, and so I’ll pass it along: “Don’t feed the trolls”.
Religion is a factor for several reasons.
Bishop Romney is the highest, most powerful religious leader to ever run for the presidency, he is from a family of royalty who helped create the anti-Christian cult called Mormonism.
Romney’s entire life seems to revolve around Mormonism and he has transferred 10s of millions of dollars into his cult, his father was a Bishop and also a GOP presidential candidate, an uncle, (or great uncle) was in line to become a Prophet.
Romney sought the approval of his Holy Prophet for this presidential run and it was granted, the Mormon church is coordinating a public relations effort costing millions of dollars to capitalize on this run, and to assist their golden boy (which Romney is in Mormon circles).
Many Mormons believe that Mitt could be the fulfillment of the “White horse” prophecy.
Romney himself has excommunicated Mormons, and baptized dead non-Mormons into his religion, Romney would have been teaching the inferiority of blacks until his 30s, his Mormon church issued his draft deferment themselves, there are many many relevant Mormon questions in regards to Romney.
No one on freerepublic hates Mormons, quit your smearing of freerepublic in service to Mitt Romney.
I maintain Mitt's Mormon beliefs are a critical election issue and I raise following arguments in support of this position:
It is not right to say doctrine doesn't matter at all. Take Islam, for instance. It would be dangerously naive to assume, as American civil religion does, that all religions are pretty much the same. It's true that most religions share core ethical teachings, but orthodox Islam also teaches unambiguously that there is to be no separation of religion and state, that non-Muslims are to live subservient under law to Muslims, and in some sects that Allah commands a jihad or "holy war" be waged against non-Muslim "infidels". To the extent that a Muslim wishes to preside over our pluralist liberal democracy, he will have had to break radically from his faith's fundamentals.
Liberals who insist that religion has no place at all in American politics have to account for the Christian roots of many social reforms. Consider for example the abolitionism and the civil rights movement. When faced with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and other black clergymen explicitly appealing to Christian scripture against Jim Crow, Southern segregationists groused that religion had no business in politics. You can't praise religion's role in political discourse only when it advances causes of which you approve or is practiced by constituencies blacks, say, that vote Democratic.
If God doesn't exist, then by what standard do we decide right from wrong? If a society recognizes no independent, transcendent guardian of the moral order, will it not, over time, lose its self-discipline and decline into barbarism? The eminent sociologist Philip Rieff, who was not a believer, said that man would either live in fear of God or would be condemned to live in fear of the evil in himself.
Mitt, himself, has placed his Mormon faith under scrutiny. In his famous speech on Mormonism, Mitt said that a person should not be rejected . . . because of his faith. His supporters say it is akin to rejecting a Barack Obama because he is black. But Obama was born black; Romney is a Mormon because he accepts the beliefs of the Mormon faith. This permits us, therefore, to make inferences about his judgment and character, good or bad.
Mitt has promised to fully obey Mormon teachings without hesitation and without question.
In his February 26, 1980 speech at BYU titled Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet, LDS President Ezra Taft Benson maintained the Mormon Church President spoke with inerrant authority on "any matter, temporal or spiritual " and was "not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time."Mitt either intended to honor his promises to follow another man's instructions, or he lied. In the case of the former, we are entitled to know where these directives lead, and in the alternative, we should be concerned about Mitt's honesty.As a Temple Mormon, Mormon Bishop and Stake President, Mitt has sworn among other things, he recognizes the President of the LDS Church as a "prophet, seer and revelator," and will "obey the rules, laws, and commandments of the gospel" as proclaimed by Mormon Prophets.
Mitt made these solemn vows with the understanding they effect "time and all eternity."
For these reasons, among others, I assert Mitt’s beliefs are indeed a legitimate issue for determining his qualifications for elected public office.
So liberals hate Jews, Christians and now Mormons?
I hope they never go so far as hating Muslims. That would make them anti-religion or something.
I am familiar with all that you said, but Liberation Theology Marxism is no nirvana. I’ll take the guy in the magick undies over the Kenyan whose pastor drones on beseeching God to damn America.
And we will have either a Marxist or a Mormon in the WH after the election. Mormons wear nicer smelling sheep’s clothing than Marxists.
People reject Heaven’s help. Imagine, God is silent now
when there is so little faith. Please, believe instead.
Our Lord to a Catholic seer in Sydney Australia
_ _ _
message to Valentina
June 13, 2012
Lift your eyes up to Me on the Cross and you will see only love and forgiveness. My suffering was only a part of My pain. My real pain was seeing My brothers and sisters turning away from Me because they did not know Me or understand My Words. My consolation was knowing My Mother, St John and the women were standing there for Me. I was not left alone. So too for you My children. I see you all walking with Me to the Calvary of the New Day, forgetting about the pain and suffering you endured along the way. Go My children with your eyes fixed on the Cross of Love always, encouraging you to get up and follow Me into the Father’s Arms of Love.
Jesus spoke the number 27.
_ _ _
Mormonism is a sect which came along in the 1820s. They have many anti-Christian beliefs, rejecting the most basic to who God is.
Dear God, please work a miracle. We have two non-Christians
running for President!! How can You bless our country with
this situation?
Of course Romney’s belief system is important.
What we beleive is who we are.
Romney’s belief system is mormonism and he lives it to the fullest.
If you just wanted to proselytize for Bishop Romney then you didn’t need to ask the misleading question that you did, and I wouldn’t have taken the time to answer a question that you really had no interest in being answered.
You are an angry little monkey aren’t you.
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